Which of the existing five Superman films is your favorite?

With the 2006 release of Bryan Singer's excellent Superman Returns, which stars Brandon Routh as Clark Kent/Superman and Kevin Spacey as Lex Luthor, the once left-for-dead franchise based on the DC Comics hero has been revived with energy and hope for a continuing series of films.
While to many fans the late Christopher Reeve will remain the definitive film portrayer of the Man of Steel, Routh did a good job tackling the dual role, far better than Dean Cain did in the TV show Lois and Clark.
Still, at least the first two films were referred to in Superman Returns, and all five are available on DVD and possibly Blu-ray discs, so I'm curious: Which of the five existing Superman films (counting from 1978's Superman: The Movie) is your favorite?
My personal favorite? It's Superman: The Movie. Richard Donner treated the story and characters as though they were real, and even though I never liked Margot Kidder's looks, she did have a feistiness and sense of wit that made her a decent Lois Lane.

I liked this latest superman movie, even if it wasn`t everything I was hoping for, however in terms of my favorite superman film i will have to choose Superman II, even with all the problems that surrounded is production, i love the final product, the head to head between Kal-El and General Zod is great, even if I had prefered that Lex Luther character had a bigger role in the movie, i prefer the sequel to the first movie.

Thanks for your kind and honest reply.
There is, I believe, a new DVD with the Richard Donner cut of Superman II; maybe that version is better than the Richard Lester one.
Superman II isn't a bad sequel, really. It's almost as good as the first film, which was saddled with having to set up the entire Man of Steel myth in almost three hours.

I so agree with you on the superman movies. the first one is by far my favorite, also. C. Reeve will always be the man of steel in my heart. I loved how the story developed, and was truely believable. The 2nd movie was close, but not quite on the same level. the movie with Richard Prior was hilarious, but definately not worth buying--as it doesn't meet the standards that the first two movies set. I don't recall the 4th movie, so I can't comment on that one.
I was a disappointed with the Superman Returns movie. It was more of a drama, than the comic book story of superman that we have all grown to love. The new actors in the movie did an excellent job reviving the roles, however, it was just the story that bothered me.
I'll be looking forward to seeing more Superman movies in the future! :)

The second film has a strange schizophrenic feel to it; the story is good because it's really the second half of a huge screenplay by Mario Puzo and it was being directed by Richard Donner. Indeed, it was filmed simultaneously with Superman: The Movie, but the producers fired Donner and brought in Richard Lester, whose approach to the story/characters was more...not sarcastic or campy, but not as reverent or serious as Donner's.
I don't know. Superman Returns is actually quite close to Superman: The Movie's tone and even refers to it several times, in obvious and sometimes subtle fashion. But to each his own, right?

The first two movies are my favorites....the first one had a lot of background setting to do so it was really long, but enjoyable. The second, sort of finished a story left open in the first one. As for the newest one, it was really good, Routh did an excellent job and he was almost the same a Reeve with some of his mannerisms. The story was good, but not really feel good type of story. I liked the movie very much and hope they can make some more.

Can you imagine, though, how long the first Superman movie could have been had the entire Mario Puzo/David Newman/Leslie Newman script been filmed all at once? The reason why Superman II is still good even though it was started by Richard Donner and finished by Richard Lester is simple: it was all in one huge screenplay and lots of scenes from the second film were shot simultaneously with the first....
I agree with all your talking points, and I thank you for your post!